Dear IASWG colleagues:
Thank you for allowing me the privilege of serving as IASWG President for the past six years. It was delightful to meet many of you through our four online symposia and two in-person events. We managed to survive as an organization through the stressful pandemic and learned new ways of interacting through virtual technology. We continue to support one another through mutual aid groups that focus on practice, teaching and dealing with climate change. And we continue to advocate for group work in education, practice and research.
I am thrilled to formally welcome our new leadership team, Board President, Será Godfrey-Kaplan and two Board Co-Vice Presidents, Namoonga Chilwalo and Kristina Lind. They are a terrific group of individuals and will bring energy and creativity to their roles and to IASWG.
I also welcome new board members-at-large: Anthony De Jesús, Sunday Ofili Ibobor and Mieko Yoshihama.
I want to thank our two outgoing Vice Presidents, Ginette Berteau and Reineth Prinsloo. They always could be counted on for support and for their dedication to language, financial equity, and attention to the internationalization of the organization. It was an honor to work with them.
I also want to thank the IASWG board, who gave their time and energy to support IASWG. Special thanks to our three outgoing member-at-large board members: Sophia Marquardt, April Parker, Andrew Spaumer. The board is composed of volunteers with a passion for group work and the organization. I so appreciate all they do.
A special note of thanks goes to Emily Santonocito, our extraordinary organizational administrator. She has been instrumental in running the organization and doing it with competence and grace.
I would like to offer my congratulations to board member Dr. Andrew Spaumer, who recently successfully completed his doctoral studies!
There is much to look forward to. The board voted to hold our 2025 Symposium virtually and plan for an in-person event in 2026.
Our theme for the coming event is: Group Work Now: Building Understanding and Connection in Challenging Times. The dates will be June 11-13, 2025. The planning committee is working on hosting a creative, interactive event with several new institutes and exciting keynote speakers. We will be sending out a call for papers in the coming weeks.
I look forward to seeing you at future events. Thank you for your continuous dedication to IASWG.
Barb Muskat
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